An engine change allowed Lowndes to take his fourth pole of the season after sitting out the final practice. Whincup was less than two tenths behind his team mate for a TeamVodafone front line and FPR took out the second row; Winterbottom and Davison in third and fourth respectively. Coulthard, Van Gisbergen, Reynolds, Ingall, Caruso and Holdsworth made up the rest of the top ten.

David Reynolds had done quite well and sat at the top of the grid until the final green tyre runs, but like IRWIN Ford, weren’t able to hold onto pole position. Lowndes’s time came in the dying minutes of qualifying, and Winterbottom completed his last lap after the chequered flag.

Villeneuve is giving himself a little bit of a challenge in his bid to do better this race, but he avoided the bottom spot by pipping David Wall by a few thousandths (31 thousandths, to be exact!) of a second.

Race 16 will take place at Queensland Raceway in a couple of hours time, 16:05 EST.